Your Prep Sports

Over the past three seasons Ashley Joens has established herself as one of the state’s best players and shown she is capable of taking over a game.

In the second game of the season the City High senior provided a rousing reminder of those two statements just in case anyone had forgot.

Joens poured in 36 points as Class 5A third-ranked City High pulled away from Cedar Rapids Kennedy for an 82-51 win in a Mississippi Valley Conference Valley Division matchup on Friday in Iowa City.

Rose Nkumu had 16 points and Paige Rocca added 10 as City High improved to 2-0 on the season.

City High led by just two after the first quarter but outscored Kennedy 22-6 in the second quarter.

Joens had 22 of her game-high 36 points in the first half as City High took a 41-23 halftime lead.

Hailey Dolphin had a team-high 27 points for Kennedy (1-1).

Cedar Rapids Kennedy        17   6   19   9  –  51

City High                             19  22  21  20 –  82

City High (82) – Rose Nkumu 16, Ayana Lindsey 5, Ashley Joens 36, Ashley Kuennen 2, Ella Cook 3, Paige Rocca 10, Aubrey Joens 8, Samantha Greving 2.

Cedar Rapids Kennedy (51) – Hailey Dolphin 27, Madison Friauf 4, Olivia Hellweg 4, Ashley Vis 5, Camryn Ray 1, Lauryn Vaske 2, Sadie Powell 5, Tessa Steffen 2, Sophia Barrett 1.

West High Shuts Down 4A No. 12 Cedar Rapids Xavier

The best basketball teams can win games a variety of different ways.

West High is one of the top teams in the state for that very reason.

Three days after scoring 70 points in a win over Cedar Rapids Jefferson Class 5A second-ranked West High held 4A No. 12 Cedar Rapids Xavier to a season-low scoring output in a 49-30 victory in Iowa City.

Xavier (3-2) didn’t score more than eight points in a quarter and managed just 13 points in the second half as West High improved to 3-0 on the season and 2-0 in Mississippi Valley Conference play.

Emma Koch had a game-high 15 points while Logan Cook added 10 points to pace West High.

Freshman Audrey Koch had eight and Cailyn Morgan and Lauren Zacharias each had five points.

Maria Steffen led Xavier with eight points.

West High (49) – Cailyn Morgan 5, Matayia Tellis 2, Lauren Zacharias 5, Logan Cook 10, Audrey Koch 8, Emma Koch 15, Paige Beckner 4.

Cedar Rapids Xavier (30) – Aubrey Jones 4, Jenae Marshall 2, Caitlynn Daniels 6, Julia Shoger 2, Libby Arnold 1, Maria Steffen 8, Emily Jasper 3, Caitlin Kramer 4.

Cedar Rapids Xavier            9    8    7    6  –  30

West High                           12  14  13  10  –  49                           

West Branch Drops Second Straight

For the second time this week West Branch found itself on the wrong end of a close game.

After falling to Wilton 76-74 on Tuesday the Bears dropped a 65-58 overtime decision at Class 3A No. 13 Monticello on Friday in a River Valley Conference cross-divisional matchup.

Tatum Koenig poured in 34 points and added five assists and three rebounds as West Branch dropped to 1-2 on the season and in RVC play.

Monticello improved to 3-0 with its third straight RVC win to open the season.

Sasha Koenig had nine points, four rebounds and three assists and Taya Young had seven points and three rebounds.

Kaiya Luneckas added eight rebounds and two assists for West Branch.